DIY Strawberry Tower With Built-in Reservoir

$1

2 Hours

Easy

Dear Hometalkers! I simply can’t wait for all the berries to turn red to share this with you – a super easy DIY strawberry tower with a built-in reservoir! Bonus: everyone can make this with recycled materials!

We all know strawberries can take up lots of space to get big yields. With this tower you can grow almost 50 plants in one or two square feet. The smart built-in reservoir make it easy to water. You can add compost tea to make the plants extra healthy and productive.

Last year we came up with this idea, made one, and it FAILED! Failures inspired us to make some big improvements, and it worked!!

We start with 5 gallon plastic nursery pots: they measure about 11″ diameter by 13″h. Find sturdy ones with drain holes on the bottom. If the drain holes are on the side, punch a few holes on the bottom. Buckets will work too! Draw 12 equally spaced holes on the side of each pot like shown in the photo above, and drill the holes with the Milwaukee 1.25″ Hole Saw attached to a drill.

Prepare the reservoir by cutting of the bottom of the water bottle, and poke some holes on the cap and on the sides all the way to the top. Leave the cap screwed on tightly. This will allow the water to seep through all the holes slowly. The design is inspired by the ingenious use of ollas in irrigation.

Place our reservoir in the center of a pot, again, only the top pot in a stack needs a reservoir. Gradually add soil and strawberry seedlings. Add a layer of rocks or pebbles at the top of the pot to hold the soil in when we water.

To learn more about additional tips, why we failed last year, and how you can have a huge success and huge harvest, visit the link below!

Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!